Worcester native named archbishop

WORCESTER 
Monsignor Michael W. Banach, a former Auburn resident who has held a number of important posts at the Vatican, was appointed Friday by Pope Benedict XVI as the titular archbishop of Memfi in Egypt.

The appointment was announced Friday morning by the Vatican Information Service.

The archbishop-elect was born in Worcester and was ordained a priest in 1988.

Church officials in Rome said he has been assigned to the office of Apostolic Nuncio and will hold the rank of ambassador, working at the Vaticanís secretary of stateís office.

The archbishop-elect previously served as the Holy Seeís permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

He had been also appointed as the Vaticanís permanent observer to the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development and to the Office of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria.

The 50-year-old archbishop-elect is the son of Wallace M. and Jane F. (Anisko) Banach and is a 1984 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, where he studied philosophy.

He studied for the priesthood at the North American College in Rome and was ordained at St. Paulís Cathedral by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington.

The archbishop-elect was assigned for a time to St. Anne Parish in Shrewsbury before going back to Rome for canonical studies at the Gregorian University.

He was elevated to the position of monsignor by Pope John Paul II on Jan. 11, 1996.

The archbishop-elect has been working for the Vaticanís diplomatic corps since 1994 and has served in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bolivia and Bulgaria.

A titular bishop is technically not in charge of a diocese.

Being assigned a titular archbishop means, however, that the individual appointed is nonetheless a leader in the church. Titular bishops also memorialize ancient churches, many of which have been suppressed because the regions in which they are located are ruled by non-Christians.